Discrimination In My Life

           In my whole life I can hardly understand the behaviour of my parents, my close friends, and people in my surroundings. I was born in what-so-called a chinese family and I have grown up in it. When I was little, I thought I have just the same ethnic as the others, and I thought that the others have just the same ethnic as me. I never thought before that I am “different” and I never thought that there are differences and gap in the society. I never thought that this racism thing exists before I reached sixteen.

            First, it was because my parents—especially my mother never stops saying “you will date and marry a chinese man. Never dare to date or marry a non-chinese man. If you did so, I would not consider you as a part of this family”. This is the basic racism thing that my parents try to plant in my brain. At first, I agree with this statement. My oldest sister also told me this many times. I held on to this statement for quite a long time. But then, I had a big crush on a boy who was not the same ethnic as me. Everything changed since then. I began to question the statement I had held on to for quite a long time. Then I heard stories about families that are badly discriminated by and  are exiled from the extended family just because one of them is marrying the non-chinese man/woman. My dad’s sister married a non-chinese man. Then she was no longer considered as chinese and her children are called “mas” or “mbak” which is obviously also a small kind of discrimination. Then, my oldest sister. She almost marry a non-chinese man and my mom was ready to expel her from the family. I began to think that this is just ridiculous. ‘Exiling’ or discriminating a family just because of one silly reason is very inhumane.

            I think marriage of a couple from different ethnic or race could make unique offsprings. Why don’t the chinese people realize that? Instead of realizing about that, they usually keep in a comfortable and long distance with the non-chinese people. They also usually have negative thoughts about the non-chinese people as well. This is silly. From my experience they always judge people by the cover (for the non-chinese people). My sister’s boss is a very good example. Her boss have been having bad impression since the first time my sister join the company. My sister doesn’t look like a typical chinese girl—like me. As a result of this, my sister will always be some kind of scapegoat and her boss never raises my sister’s salary while my sister’s  friends’ salary will always rise per year. My mother is also a good example. She always says that the non-chinese people do almost all bad things than the chinese people. I completely disagree about this statement. I've seen criminal cases that the chinese people got involved in the newspapers. My mother's younger brother is also a jerk--he married his own niece and he often ask my mother some amount of money.

            I do not know what makes them do so. Maybe they are narrow-minded, or maybe their parents taught them wrong. I still heard about the inner conflicts between the people from both sides (the chinese and the non-chinese). One side hates the other side and the other side hates another side. For example, my friend once walked to her house which was full of non-chinese men. They shouted at her "cino! cino!" (which means "chinese! chinese!") and then they began to say bad things and mocked about chinese people. Also, my sister once heard a conversation between two non-chinese men (I don't remember what were their ethnic specifically). One man say that he had been annoyed by a chinese man. Then the other man say "kene, tak parani. Ancene cino" (which more or less means "I'll take care of him. Damn those chinese"). Not only from the non-chinese side, from the chinese side, I often hear they are saying things like "iniren!" (which means the non-chinese people) or other things implying that the non-chinese people are bad and the chinese people should not befriended with them. This "hating each other" thing will not stop if they are (both sides) still narrow-minded. This thing will probably continue until the end of the world if both sides don't want to realize the importance of unity in this multicultural country.